Message from the Dean
Author: Michelle Gray
Posted on Sep 20, 2022
Dear Alumni & friends
Here we are at the start of the 2022-23 academic year and are buzzing with the excitement of having the students back in full force here in Forestry and Environmental Management. COVID-19 is still here but we are all adjusting and pivoting, when need be, and it's a massive benefit to being a faculty of very strong and resilient people.
We welcomed nearly 80 new undergraduate students in September with an inaugural UNB ForEM Amazing Race for their Orientation Day, that saw students racing around campus visiting places that will need to know to help them navigate and succeed here (e.g. 1st year classrooms, Student Union Building, Math and Writing Skills Centres, Library, etc) and completing tasks and challenges to get their next clue.
I am sure you join us in wishing all our new undergraduate and graduate students luck and great success in their academic pursuits in the coming year.
FOREM community succession
We welcomed a new Associate Professor in Forest Management, Dr. Anthony Taylor, a new Teaching Professor in Environmental Management, Janet Blackadar, and a new Student Services and Outreach Coordinator, Jacob Weinstein. Most recently, we said goodbye to Dr. Brigitte Leblon who retired from UNB after more than 25 years in the faculty, to take a new position at Lakehead University.
We are currently interviewing candidates for a new Assistant Professor in Silviculture, and will soon be posting for the position of Assistant Professor in Remote Sensing.
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” -JFK
In October, we will host a virtual site visit from the Canadian Forestry Accreditation Board (CFAB), who re-evaluates our Bachelor of Forestry (BScF) program every 6 years. At the same time, we are putting forward a new program pathway, the Master of Forestry Registered Professional Forester (MF-RPF) stream, for pre-approval by CFAB. If successful, we will seek full approval in the fall of 2023.
Enrolment
This year marks our biggest increase in incoming enrolment in the past decade, with a noted increase in transfer students that had been reduced during the past two years of COVID.
Another big change for the undergraduate programming this year is be the official degree name change from BSc in Environment and Natural Resources (BScENR) to BSc in Environmental Management (BScEM). Formerly, the BScENR program was co-delivered with the Faculty of Science, but with their introduction of new Environmental Science streams, ForEM has differentiated to better reflect our academic focus and now are solely responsible for this degree program. Fifty-five precent of 2022-23 incoming students are enrolled in the BScEM program, with the remaining 45% in the BScF program.
Our recruiting efforts have changed in response to COVID and have taken on more of a virtual format, allowing us to reach schools and colleges we have never visited before. We are always looking for alumni to help be UNB ForEM ambassadors where they live and work, and also within local schools. Please reach out if you are interested in helping us with recruiting the next graduating class of ForEM.
Join us on our various social media platforms and keep up to date with events and opportunities to connect and engage with us - we want to hear from you too!